Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The particular article that I'm "sending to blogger" (assuming it shows up here) resonates with me, but not enough to overcome the sort of resignation expressed in the second comment to the article at The Nation.

"So be it..."

Update: Well, the article didn't show up (problem between chair and screen).

This comes on the heels of some right-wing horseshit that hit my spam box yesterday. It claimed that radical leftistas in the USA were planning something like the rioting that occurred recently in London and elsewhere over there. They wanted me to sign a petition and send in some money and call my congressperson and so on. Red white and blue. Sarah, Rick, Michele, God, Jesus and Our Tea Party Way Of Life.

Subverse!

Well, I didn't have much sympathy for the British rioters. It's actually more like, fuck 'em. Same for masked anarchist window breakers at economic summits. I'm not temperamentally disposed to such things. Fuck 'em!As I get older, though, it seems my disdain for such things is diminishing.

Less "fuck 'em", more "Hmmm..."

Subverse!

I can't quarrel too much with the following quote presumably from anonymous (whoever that is):

Many of us are scared and angry. We see that your money systems are imploding, and that your governments are growing more corrupt and oppressive every day.

Your political systems offer us nothing but false dichotomies. Every month, we see new half-cocked legislation targeting our lulz. When our brothers simply vandalize a website, you try to put them in cages for decades, crying“cybercrime” and “domestic terrorism.”

This is confusing, because we are in the right. You’re punishing us for simply voicing our displeasure, for saying that we aren’t satisfied with the status quo.

We see your control slipping. In 2009 Uncle Sam spent a third of ‘our tax dollars’ paying down the INTEREST on his credit card bill [1]. Most of those dollars go to the banks who own the Fed.

And for the cost of a couple wars, you could have converted all our cars to sustainable alcohol fuel and built another space station to boot.

But you don’t want that. You can’t exist without the archaic institutions that you have built, like the oil and war industries, the prison-industrial complex, America’s state education system, and centrally controlled money systems. If you allowed free markets to exist, you would be bankrupted by competition. You are parasites on the backs of the human race.

Tools like Bitcoin, gpg and darknets allow us to escape your control systems. We’re going to trade, work, and live without playing your silly games and you can’t do a thing about it.

Know that you can’t silence us and you can’t scare us. We’re not going to fight you, because you have guns with psychopaths behind them. Instead, we are subverting you.

We’re building our own systems to replace yours.

They’re better systems, with blackjack and hookers. And every time someone chooses our systems over yours, your power wanes another tick. We won’t stop until you’ve become the Powers that Were.

-anonymous

Hmmm... I'm way past these guys. They still have hope. I think the modern tools they are so expert with may have distorted their forward vision. Do they really think that they can build a system to replace the the one they are so pissed off at? Do they really think that Bitcoin, gpg and other such brilliant stuff, coming from genius though it does, are silver bullets? Do they think this stuff will still be available after the shit has hit the fan?

Well, I was young once, too. Then I started to get old, then I became resigned, and then, as the old song goes, "I'm younger than that now."

Sure enough, Al Gore was mentioned derisively by one of the first commenters, whose chorus is along the lines of "global warming is a hoax". The story has generated over 1200 comments as I type, approximately all of them (based on what limited sampling I could stomach) having dutifully swallowed the spin so quickly they must have felt a violent wrenching sensation in the gut.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Bob Fletcher – who officially turns 100 on Tuesday – didn't see combat in World War II. But he was shot at for being a Japanese sympathizer when he quit his job to save three local Japanese American farms whose owners were sent to internment camps.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

This is some of the music that Andrew Berwick, aka Anders Behring Breivik, particularly admires. He recommends some nationalist themed songs from a band called Saga (and some other stuff that doesn't ring my bell).

The Saga singer has a nice voice, and on their face I kind of like the songs. The lyrics are unusual, but were I to hear them out of the blue I wouldn't take much note of them. They certainly wouldn't inspire me to nationalist violence, or even to nationalism (one of humanity's illnesses). But then, I prefer this sort of thing: With God On Our Side and The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. As for the non-Saga stuff Breivik recommends, it's not my cup of tea at all. In his Manifesto he wrote of Saga:

I will now show you several music tracks you should acquire as soon as possible which are ideal for the purpose of maintaining a high level of motivation and confidence:

Motivational music tracks, artist: Saga

Saga is a courageous, Swedish, female nationalist-oriented musician who creates pop-music with patriotic texts. She is, as far as I know, the best and most talented patriotic musician in the English speaking world. And for those of you, like myself, who hates "metal", Saga is one of the few sources available that offers quality patriotic pop-music with brilliant texts. Most of the tracks are in English and some are in Swedish.

Marxist and multiculturalist character-assassins will claim that Saga is an evil, national-socialist monsterband from hell, due to her success. However, this characteristic couldn't be anywhere further from the truth. Although the environment surrounding Saga, the former NSF – National Sosialistisk Forening (a former Swedish Indigenous Rights Movement demonised as "evil Nazi monsters"), used to be self-proclaimed national socialists; it has become evident that most of them now has embraced a more national conservative ideological denomination of conservatism, very similar to that of Knights Templar Europe. Saga has created several pop-tracks with nationalist-oriented texts that will appeal to all conservatives, and especially revolutionary conservatives of all conservative ideological denominations.

Saga has the credibility to use the texts presented vocally as she has been a Swedish and European conservative resistance fighter for more than 10 years, working for the political and cultural interests of Sweden and the interests of all Swedes, Scandinavians and Europeans. Saga and similar patriotic heroes and heroines of Scandinavia, who unlike individuals like myself who has yet to come out of the "revolutionary conservative closet", has had to face political persecution and demonisation for years. Yet they continue their brave struggle to prevent the demographical and cultural genocide of the Scandinavian and European tribes. Instead of "physical" revolutionary or democratic resistance, she fights through her music by inspiring the best in us.

I discovered Sagas music relatively late, in 2008, but have enjoyed it ever since. I have listened to many of the tracks several hundred times and I don't seem to get tired of them. I would HIGHLY recommend that all Justiciar Knights of Europe and other revolutionary conservatives use these tracks for self-motivating purposes. Don't just listen to the tracks but learn the texts as well. It has worked brilliantly for me and it will likely work just as well for you. However, "soon-to-become conservative martyrs" should be careful when acquiring the tracks (use anonymizer software and take other necessary precautions) as it is likely that the distribution of the music is monitored by the Swedish intelligence agency, under directive of the Swedish multiculturalist regime.

Life is a struggle in these changing timesThoughts once natural are now classed as hate crimesThose now in power, they fear no one but oneA man with open eyes and a sober mind so strong

It's been said before, but still we do not heed

To free the enslaved minds of the sleeping masswe must cast away the yokes, ignore status and classBarriers were built to make us forget blood tiesAnd now we aren't as one, and egos benefits on lies

It's been said before, but still we do not heed

Folk and Nation first, and blood - not personal greedAnd it's been said before, but still we do not heedFree your enslaved minds and open up your eyes and seeThe strength of your people, one Nation arise!

It is good versus evil, it's the eternal fightTo overcome the darkness we must spreed the light

It's been said before, but still we do not heed

Folk and nation first, and blood - not personal greedAnd it's been said before, but still we do not heedFree your enslaved minds and open up your eyes and seeThe strength of your people, one nation arise!

Too many people spend their timespreading gossips and complaintsthey seek someone to hangthey seek someone to blameIn their search for a scapegoat they forgot to look in the mirrorapathy of weak people is what caused this daily horror

You're the one - the one to blame, ohoPeople like you - cause us pain, ohoYou're the one - the one to blame, ohoStart to act - but use your brainUse your brain, now

People like you who haven't gotthe guts to stand up for your viewsyou forget the simple factit's people like you who makes us looseYou complain about the politiciansbut still you vote them inyou've lost your soulyou coward to sell your pride is a sin

You're the one - the one to blame, ohoPeople like you - cause us pain, ohoYou're the one - the one to blame, ohoStart to act - but use your brainUse your brain, ohoUse your brain

You complain about the immigrationyou really make me sickit was your vote that opened the borderyou filthy hypocriteYou say one thing but do anotherjust how weak can one man beYou're the reason for our miseryso blame yourself and don't blame me

You're the one - the one to blame, ohoPeople like you - cause us pain, ohoYou're the one - the one to blame, ohoStart to act - but use your brainUse your brain, oho

You're the one - the one to blame, ohoPeople like you - cause us pain, ohoYou're the one - the one to blame, ohoStart to act - but use your brainUse your brain, now

Raise the flag of solid blackto keep the memory aliveOf black clad legionswho fought and died for our folk in '45Black is the colour of mourming for the martyrs of Vinland tooMatthew and Kirk and Singer and Rockwell and Kahl stood true

Raise the flag of destinyas black as the wing of a ravenAnd change it not nor raise another'til we have a folkish havenRaise the flag of destinythe flag of destiny

Black is the colour of midnight whichthe tyrant shall learn to dreadAs we honour fallen martyrs with steal and fire and ledThe ancient Aryan Symbol is also drawn in blackso underneath that colourwe will take our Nations back

Raise the flag of destinyas black as the wing of a ravenAnd change it not nor raise another'til we have a folkish havenRaise the flag of destiny

And when we have that land of our ownthen on that holy groundwe'll plant our flag of raven blackupon a scared mound

Raise the flag of destinyas black as the wing of a ravenAnd change it not nor raise another'til we have a folkish havenRaise the flag of destinyRaise the flag of destinyas black as the wing of a ravenAnd change it not nor raise another'til we have a folkish havenRaise the flag of destiny

Eyes shining bright with unspilt tears,Thinking about all these wasted years.Everything worth living for is gone,Brother, i find it hard to keep fighting on.Falling down towards the abyss,The reaper embraces me with his kiss;It makes me want to refuse to care,To watch this all unfold - too much to bear.

If this is the way it ends -If this is the way my race ends . . .If this is the way it ends - i can't bear to witness

Disease encroaching on all i hold dear,Somehow i gotta get my soul outta here.Heart of agony, faint burning hope,I'm finding it hard to try to cope . . .

Because liars own the world with conquering poise,In a wasteland of meaningless noise;We don't stand a chance with dormant pride,The heroes of our race have already died . . .

If this is the way it ends - if this is the way my race ends. . .If this is the way it ends - i can't bear to witness . . .

To imagine it has all come down to this,Apathy and suicidal bliss . . .

It's all over except for the cryin',With a whimper instead of the roar of a lion . . .

The greatest race to ever walk the earth,Dying a slow death with insane mirth,The tomb has been prepared, our race betrayed,White man, fight the flight towards the grave . . .

If this is the way it ends - if this is the way my race ends . . .If this is the way it ends - i can't bear to witness . . .If this is the way it ends - if this is the way my race ends . . .If this is the way it ends - i can't bear to witness . . .

Don't let it end this way,Don't let it end this way,Don't let it end this way, i can't bear to witness . . .

The best are condemned to useless liveswhen chaos regimes and the merchant thrievesThe basest sort then make sportof those who die with anguished crybecause they told the Nations fate

Gods of the rabble are greed and lustlove and honour turned to dustPatriots in cages and liars as sagesthe tyrants rage in every age

Black is white and evil is goodand nothing pure is understoodEmotions grow cold and the future is soldthe senses are sated and the prophets are hatedbecause they told the Nations fate

Gods of the rabble are greed and lustlove and honour turned to dustPatriots in cages and liars as sagesthe tyrants rage in every age

The state and the press and the church are a toolan honest man is labelled a foolEvery man must abaseevery kin and every raceOr face the fearsome despots planto destroy every man

The whores of merchant pave the road to helltwisting words to weave a spellMaster deceivers making believersmisleading men with a cunning pento hate those who tell the Nations fate

Gods of the rabble are greed and lustlove and honour turned to dustPatriots in cages and liars as sagesthe tyrants rage in every ageGods of the rabble are greed and lustlove and honour turned to dustPatriots in cages and liars as sagesthe tyrants rage in every age

He sat in a roomin a square of the color of blood.He'd rule the whole worldif there was a way that he could.He'd sit and he'd stareat the minreds on top of the towers.For he was a beastas he hatched his new plans to gain power.

(chorus)And the snow fellcovering the dreams and ideals.And the snow fellfreezing the blood and the wheels.And the snow fellthey had to keep up for survival.And the snow felldefeating the beast's only rival.

They took the old roadsthat Napoleon had taken before.They fought as a force as a lightagainst the darkness in a holy war.One day they were looking aroundand the sun was shining on the cold flowers.The next day they were freezing to deathin the sleet and the ice cold showers.

(chorus)

Then came the deadly roadsback from the stairs of their retreat.The cold racked their bodiesbut worse was the pain of defeat.Many people who had hailed them oncenow turned and looked away.These people now knewthat the beast was on it's way.

(chorus)

You finally came backto the borders of your fatherland.Now enemies cametraitors everywhere at hand.Many people who had fought and diedknowing that they had to win.It still sickens my heartto see the picture of the red flag in Berlin.

(chorus)

Breivik lists 5 other tracks in Swedish, and goes on to say he'd limited his list to those he felt were worthy and available.

Breivik continues:

Other artists:

Lux Aeterna by the English composer and musician Clint MansellComment: I love this work. Lux Aeterna means "eternal light" and it really is an appropriate title. I've listened to this track several hundred times and I never seem to get tired of it. The track is very inspiring and invokes a type of passionate rage within you. In Lord of the Rings – a good version of this track (Requiem for a Tower version which I think is the best) is performed during the most intense fighting of one of the central battles. Since it has worked for me, it is likely that it willwork for you. An invigorating piece of art.

Motivational music tracks, artist: Helene BøksleThe following is Helene Bøksle`s - Age of Conan theme music. Three of the tracks surpass almost anything I've heard before. The tracks are in old Norse tongue (old Norwegian), truly epic, verypowerful and motivational and even worthy of playing during a martyrdom operation (in addition to Saga and Clint Mansell).

Imagine the following; at the end of your mission, when you have completed your primary objectives - imagine fighting for your life against a pursuing pack of system protectors (or as I liketo call them: armed defenders of the multiculturalist system, also referred to as the police). You try to avoid confrontation but they eventually manage to surround you. You hear this song as you push forward to annihilate one of their flanks, head shotting two of your foes in bloody fervor trying to survive. This angelic voice sings to you from the heavens, strengthening your resolve in a hopeless battle. Your last desperate thrust kills another two of your enemies. But it isn't enough as you are now completely surrounded; your time is now. This voice is all you hear as your light turns to darkness and you enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. This must surely be the most glorious way to claim the honour of martyrdom in battle.

The following is also decent track for maintaining a high morale during a limited battle confrontation although it lacks vocal:

I'm certainly not about to read the 1500+ pages of Breivik's "Manifesto", but jumping down the pages and scanning a bit is an interesting experience. The guy seems pretty bright, and clearly put a lot of work into compiling the thing. He claims credit for having written about half of it.

The music stuff above starts in page 848, and there's an eye-catching section entitled "There are no atheists in foxholes" starting on page 1344, in which he discusses the value of pragmatic prayer (prayer by even an atheist in the heat of battle for it's calming power).

Whatever dude. You should have smoked some pot instead of whatever toxic shit you ingested.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Somehow I wound up on their emailing list, so yesterday I received this invitation from the Arizona Republican Party. Highlighting a few of the things I found most irritating about it, I reproduce it here in case you didn't get it. If you really care, though, you'll have to click the image to see it its full glory.

Since I know the Republicans care deeply about my opinions, I feel I owe them a little constructive criticism in the way of an explanation behind my irritation at various parts of their mailing. Here we go, starting at the top.

At the upper left, I highlighted part of the Arizona Republican Party logo. The irritant here is "Republican Party". As is the case with lawyers, I've known lots of good people who happen to be Republicans. Enough said.

Moving down... Steven Seagal??? Please. OK, so he's made a couple of movies I thought were passable, others not so much. I don't know how much of that stuff about sexual exploitation and lies (google it) actually sticks to Seagal, but even if he is actually a saint, his inclusion here is for the purpose of drawing a crowd I'm happy not to be a part of.

"Restoration of The Republic"Ok, I'll let that one slide. It's empty.

"We the People"We WHAT people?

Joe the Plumber isn't a plumber, and had it not been for heavy Republican manipulation of a media accident involving his uninformed questioning of candidate Obama, he might have actually bought the small plumbing business he was supposedly attempting to buy, and then gone on down the drain in the economic collapse without ever wondering whether starvation of the beast had been a good idea after all.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio. This is the guy who wanted to ring Maricopa County in roadblocks as a tactic in the War on Some Drugs. I tend to like his tent cities, chain gangs and baloney sandwiches, but I don't like ... never mind.

WikiLeaks is like almost any other organization I've ever supported. NRA, ACLU, whatever. I can't dictate their agenda, but if, on balance, I like their general stance, then I might support them from time to time.

It annoyed me to no end when PayPal froze WikiLeak's account and cut them off. Who is PayPal to tell me where I can send my money? Who is MasterCard, or Visa, to make such decisions for me? How long before they cut off organizations working for change on the basis that what they advocate is illegal (drug policy, assisted suicide, ...). As far as I'm concerned, that's unacceptable. Where will it end? One of these days I might not be able to send money to Planned Parenthood on the basis that it's illegal to kill babies. Screw that.

Maybe there's a real need for something like BitCoin. Despite the down-sides.

Health and Safety staff at nuclear plants have urged workers to wash their hands frequently or use alcohol-based hand sanitizers, citing such measures as the best way to prevent transmission of cold and flu viruses.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. – Robert Adams craved an ice-cold drink after finishing his shift on a sweltering workday, but not having enough money to buy the burrito he also wanted left him with two obvious choices: Stop at the ATM, or find a bag containing more than $17,000 in cash.

"I wanted to get a large horchata, which is almost like a rice or coconut milk," Adams told the Daily Herald (Arlington Heights) for a story published Wednesday. "I would have grabbed a chorizo burrito, too, but I didn't have enough money."

That changed Monday when the Chicago-area man stood at a Chase ATM in Rolling Meadows, looked down and discovered on the sidewalk near a newspaper box a clear plastic bag containing receipts, checks and $17,021 in cash — mostly $20 and $100 bills bound by a rubber band.

"I see this plastic bag. It's clear plastic and it's half full of money," Adams said. "I figure this is a joke. Somebody took some napkins and made it look like money. This has to be a setup. People are going to look at me and start laughing."

Adams said he never had the urge to keep any of the money.

"It's not my money. I shouldn't take it. I don't care if you put another zero on there, I wasn't raised to take money that isn't mine," said Adams, a 54-year-old single man who lives in Arlington Heights and credits his deceased parents for teaching him right from wrong. "If I saw you drop it, I'd say, `Excuse me, sir. I think you dropped something.'"

The word "Chase" was printed on the bag, so Adams carried it inside the nearby branch.

"I walk up to the teller and say, `I think you might have left this outside,'" said Adams, figuring an employee left it behind after restocking the ATM. But employees told him the machine is filled from inside and the money didn't belong to the bank.

Adams then called police, who along with bank officials later determined the money was meant for an ATM in Midlothian and had been under the care of Loomis, an armored truck company. Rolling Meadows police took the money to the station, where it was picked up by a Loomis official.

Loomis officials said they were investigating, but have not said whether Adams will get a reward.

"I really don't know what happens with this situation," Adams said.

Onesimo Santillan, owner of the Senor Taco restaurant where Adams originally was headed to indulge his cravings, said the actions of his longtime customer don't surprise him.

"He has been coming in for years, always orders the same thing, very nice guy," Santillan said. "It's hard to find people like that, honest people."

Rolling Meadows Police Chief Dave Scanlan said Adams did good: "We all said right away that this guy deserves something — credit for being an Honest Abe."

Friday, April 22, 2011

There is one economy. Just one. That it is composed of legal and illegal sectors might as well be by design.

The legal part of the economy is much more complex, thus much more difficult to deal with, than the illegal part of the economy. When the legal economy declines you have to mortgage the future, start hot wars and apply complex, politically challenging programs to try to avoid depression.

It makes little sense to damage any part of the overall economy, especially at a time when the legal sector has been so severely challenged as of late.

In contrast to the legal sector of the economy (where you must have massive, complex and at least somewhat transparent bureaucratic programs to prop it up) the illegal sector of the economy is relatively simple to deal with.

Yes, you have to apply subsidies to the illegal sector of the global economy in order to bolster its contribution to the whole, because what's good for the illegal sector of the economy is good for the whole economy. Part of the genius of Prohibition is that it applies the required subsidy to the illegal sector of the economy at virtually no cost. The measly few billions in the budget for the ONDCP, for example, generate two or three orders of magnitude greater effect in the illegal sector of the economy, providing greater bang for buck than almost any other government economic program.

There are intangible social costs of applying such subsidies to the illegal sector of the economy, of course, but intangibles are essentially unquantifiable and therefore, as in other arenas like anthropogenic climate change, these not much weighted in such analyses.

The policy of Prohibition must be maintained in order to maintain the contribution of the illegal sector of the economy to the overall economy. This is especially true with marijuana because of its dominant role in the illegal economy.

Monday, April 04, 2011

I'm generally in agreement with the NRA when it comes to gun rights, but I don't think they are serious about rights in general. Maybe someone has studied the question and could correct me if I'm wrong, but I perceive the leadership and membership of the NRA to be, generally speaking, a bunch of right-wing authoritarian followers, unconcerned with rights in general.

Blaming America for Mexico’s problems has been something of a national pastime for Mexican politicians for many years. True to tradition, Mexican president Felipe Calderon has been blaming Mexico’s astronomically high murder rate on Americans who buy drugs and who sell guns, rather than on the Mexican drug cartels who commit a vastly disproportionate share of those murders, and the historic corruption in Mexico, from which the wicked cartels have spawned.

However, an article published by the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada suggests that el Presidente might better serve the good people of his country by looking to his southern border, instead of al norte.

As explained in English by the Latin American Herald Tribune, “The most fearsome weapons wielded by Mexico’s drug cartels enter the country from Central America, not the United States, according to U.S. diplomatic cables disseminated by WikiLeaks and published on Tuesday by La Jornada newspaper. Items such as grenades and rocket-launchers are stolen from Central American armies and smuggled into Mexico via neighboring Guatemala, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City reported to Washington.”

The article also refers to “Fast and Furious,” an element of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' “Project GunRunner” operation that allegedly knowingly allowed more than 1,700 firearms to be smuggled into Mexico from our country, including those that may have been used to murder U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata in February.

Increasingly, the question is who knew about the operation, and when. President Obama has stated that neither he nor Attorney General Eric Holder were aware of the scheme. Holder is said to have told his subordinates that letting guns “walk” to Mexico is wrong and should not be repeated. The McAllen, Tex., newspaper, The Monitor, quotes the Mexican government as saying that it “did not have knowledge on an operation that included the controlled traffic of weapons in Mexican territory,” and that “The Mexican government has not and will not give any implied or formal authorization for this to happen.”

Meanwhile, Fox News reports that U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, today issued a subpoena to the Justice Department demanding that the BATFE respond to his March 16 request for information about the operation, the deadline for which passed on Wednesday. Rep. Issa is quoted as saying, “The unwillingness of this administration—most specifically the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms—to answer questions about this deadly serious matter is deeply troubling.”

CBS News similarly reported that “The Department of Justice and ATF have missed repeated deadlines to turn over information and documents” to Congress, and further noted that the investigation of Project GunRunner may significantly delay hearings on President Obama’s nomination of BATFE agent Andrew Traver, an activist gun control supporter, to head the BATFE.

The BATFE has until April 13 to respond to Rep. Issa’s subpoena. Stay tuned.

Restating the obvious for the NRA, the root of the problem IS north of the border. The root of the problem is the enormous subsidy provided to "the wicked cartels" by the idiocy that is prohibition. That's not the party line, though, is it?

What is it about these True Red White and Blue patriot types that prevents them from seeing the

Monday, March 21, 2011

I think Bitcoin stands a good chance of becoming a big deal. A great big deal.

Lots of questions though.

Bitcoin is a new electronic currency. A currency out of the control of bankers or governments. It's an open source currency running on open source software loaded on standard computers of various OS flavors. It'll be immune from inflation because the total, ultimate amount of coin is embedded in the system.

I've said virtually nothing above, and already I'm saying more than I know. I only know that it smells significant to me.

It'll be interesting to watch this develop. Will governments and banks subvert it by various means. Will they be able to do so? Will it eventually take on the role of global reserve currency? How will it avoid total reliance on breakable infrastructure and dependence on public utilities and communications channels? What about money laundering?

What if I need to stop payment?

I'm thinking about setting up a node, just to learn more and support the effort, but what if I change out my hardware or software, or if my house burns to the ground? Or gets destroyed in an earthquake and tsunami. I don't think it's a simple as joining SETI. I've never allowed port forwarding at my house; what are the security implications of opening ports in my firewall to receive incoming Bitcoin traffic?

Do I have the capacity to understand Bitcoin? I recognized 25 or 30 years ago that asymmetrical, public key cryptography was probably going to become a great big thing, and yet I barely understood it. Now that it has become a great big thing, I still don't really understand it.

So what if I don't understand it? I don't understand much of anything, really.

I guess Bitcoin could be broken some time, just as the cryptography that's central to today's online economy could be broken by the use of chemical genetics in a massively parallel approach to cryptanalysis. Or something. Quantum computing. Who knows?

I'm pretty sure, though, that this will be an interesting thing to follow, and maybe join.

There are lots of really smart people in the world. Sometimes that alone is enough to give me hope.